Grave Secrets : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Not Cornwell, thank Heavens
Review: Comparing Kathy Reichs to Cornwell is like comparing real roses to plastic ones; it doesn't do Reichs any favors with those of us who find Cornwell's books tedious, cartoonish, and stupid. No question, Reichs is getting better. Complaints about "intricate plotting" hint at that. Here, she weaves together four disappearances that appear to be related, and an apparently unrelated murder, then resolves all the strands quickly with only one convenient accident. And the last four sentences of the book made me laugh out loud. Some fun.

Reichs' forensics are rock solid and fascinating. More to the point, her characters are not cardboard grotesques, and her heroine's values extend beyond the brandname of her stemware. There is none of Cornwell's thinly veiled contempt for people who don't covet Jaguars.

The appearance of Tempe Brennan in a Guatemalan village was a bit of a shock, but within a few pages, it makes sense and, for its humanizing and realistic focus on one person trying to make a difference in a real political tragedy, it is a major attraction of the book. Brennan isn't out to save the world from face-peeling supervillains; she's slogging in a septic tank to protect real people from real evil.

Can't wait for more.

Rating:
Summary: grisly politics, fine forensic anthropology
Review: In her fifth outing, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who ordinarily divides her professional time between Montreal and North Carolina, is in Guatemala excavating a 1982 massacre site. As the book opens, two of her co-workers have been ambushed; one is dead, the other is in a coma. Authorities are calling it a robbery but Tempe knows their work is dangerous - many of those responsible for "disappeareds" are still in power.

Then Tempe's work is interrupted by a request to recover a girl's decomposed body found in a seedy motel septic tank. Four teenage girls - one of them the Canadian ambassador's daughter - are missing and Detective Bartolomé Galiano fears a serial killer.

The plot lines cross and re-cross. Tempe's new investigation is disrupted by a sinister official who confiscates the body. Parental secrets and the vagaries of teenage behavior complicate matters and the demands of the massacre site are heavy. Meanwhile Tempe's conflicted relationship with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan takes another hit from her growing attraction to Galiano.

Intricate, finely detailed scenes of forensic examination (particularly the septic tank recovery and study of skeleton detail) fuel the story, counterbalancing Tempe's sometimes mystifying penchant for thin-skinned irritability. The plot is almost confusingly complex, but Reichs (herself a forensic anthropologist) wraps it up nicely leaving a little teaser for her next book.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, thrilling book!
Review: Kathy Reichs is fast becoming one of my very favorite authors and this book is no exception. Usually her main character, Tempe Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, stays in the USA or in Canada within each book, but this time she is in Guatemala in a village called Chupan Ya, where a terrible incident happened in 1982. Soldiers invaded the village, raping the women, then killing them and the children there.

Although this was a well-known incident, no records were kept and Tempe joins up with the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation to uncover the graves and recover the bones of the dead.

Things get off to a bang when the team is packing up for the day and get a satellite phone call from two of their colleagues, who are driving towards the city. While talking, Tempe hears other voices, screams, shots, then nothing. The man is dead, but the woman is rushed to the hospital and goes into a coma.

Dealing with this is bad enough, then Tempe is asked by the Guatemalan police to help with a case they've been working on - four well-to-do young women have mysteriously vanished from Guatemala City in recent months and none of their bodies have been found, nor have any of them turned up alive. One of the woman is the daughter of the Canadian ambassador, which is why Tempe thinks she's been asked to help. But it's the discovery of a body in a septic tank that is the real reason - Tempe had worked on a case before involving a body found in a septic tank.

She reluctantly agrees to assist and finds some cat hairs and fetal bones in the tank among a young woman's remains. For whatever reason, she tucks some of the cat hair and fetal bones in her pocket and it's a good thing she did, because the remains are suddenly whisked away from further investigation

Frustrated, but not about to give up, Tempe sends the hair off to a colleague who knows cat hairs, asks questions of the families of the missing young women and begins to realize there just might be a connection to the Chupan Ya massacre and these current disappearances. Plus, the ambush of her colleagues in the car may not have been meant for them, but for her instead.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this book, and Katherine Borowitz, who has read almost all of Kathy Reich's other books, does an outstanding job of putting you right in the middle of this must-read (or must-hear) thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Another Winner
Review: Kathy Reichs' Dr. Temperance Brennan (Tempe) is one of the more complicated main mystery characters being written today. She is a combination of strength (in this book she must spend a day digging around in a septic tank) and emotional caring that makes for an interesting person that is not cookie-cutter like so many of today's 'sleuths.'

The mystery begins with Tempe working in a remote Guatemalan village uncovering long buried victims of a junta's attack. She is then dragged, somewhat unwillingly, into investigating the disappearance of four young women in Guatemala City, leading to complications in which the government is involved. The action moves from Guatemala to Canada and back again. There is romance involved, as well, as she begins to be attracted to the Guatemalan detective with whom she is working (he is also an old friend of Tempe's sometime boyfriend Andrew Ryan which provides further drama).

I enjoyed this book as I have all of Reichs mysteries. One thing did stick out in my mind though as I was reading: several times Tempe is complaining (which she has toned down since her first book appearance) about being constantly surronded by death. I could not help but think, "Well, that is your chosen profession. Sure it must be disheartening at times but if it is creating that much travail, change jobs." I guess my feeling was a throwback to that first book in which Tempe came across as somewhat whiny.

That aside, I will definitely be reading the next books in the series.

Rating:
Summary: AN A-ONE READING OF REICHS
Review: With numerous film, television and stage appearances to her credit veteran actress Katherine Borowitz knows how to deliver - and deliver she does in her reading of
Kathy Reichs's fifth novel featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

This time out we find Tempe in Guatemala where she is assisting in exhuming a mass grave, the final resting place of women and children who were raped and slain by soldiers during a 1982 attack on their village. No one knows for certain who is in the grave; no records were kept. To the families of those missing their loved ones have simply disappeared.

Meanwhile, in Guatemala City, where four young women have been reported missing recently, remains are found in a septic tank. Could those remains be the Canadian Ambassador's daughter? Tempe is asked for help by the Guatemalan police. But as she investigates further she finds herself almost trapped in a web of crime and coverup.

As always, Reichs, who is a forensic anthropologist herself, laces her suspenseful tale with authentic medical description. The author's expertise simply makes her stories more shudderingly real. Reichs tops the list in her genre.

- Gail Cooke